For a variety of reasons, a quantity of medications otherwise intended for personal use may no longer be needed and should therefore be properly disposed of. Often, these left-over medications are just thrown away or flushed down a toilet. Not all medications break down quickly into harmless elements or compounds, and may environmentally persist long enough in soil or water to present a hazard to plants, animals or humans. Safe disposal occurs when the compounds in the medication are reduced to simpler chemical forms so that they present no biological hazard.
Similarly, the growing use of electronic devices which are physically small but capable of massive data storage, such as thumb drives, data cards, smart phones and hard disk drives, poses a problem for information security. If such a device falls into the wrong hands, it could disclose personal data allowing identity theft or other harm to its former owner. “Safe disposal” in this case would occur if a discarded device were treated in such a way as to render any data within it impossible to recover.
Because the quantities of these unwanted medications and devices may be small, the cost and inconvenience of collecting them for safe disposal often becomes excessive, creating a significant disincentive to such disposal. A device that incinerates a medication or electronic waste to a harmless state and that can be recycled would be an advantage.